Brett Charles Barrett, Fine English Luthier

I was born in Skipton, North Yorkshire in 1965. I first started to play the guitar aged 13. I then went on to study music at Harrogate School of Music and Arts aged 16, where I was taught by Peter Newsome and MarkStockall.

My first introduction to guitar making was by luthier and jazz guitarist Charlie Crabtree aged 16 who showed Me how to make My first guitar to go to Music school with because at the time I could not afford to buy a quality instrument and I needed one & the the only way for Me to get one was make one. I became very good friends with Robin Pearson and Kate Dickinson of theSpanish Guitar Centre in Nottingham also meeting Luthier Kenneth Robert’s who was making guitars for Robin Pearson. I wasn’t interested in becoming a maker of guitars because I wanted to be a concert guitarist but I had a book on guitar making by Stanley Doubtfire which I read & studied for years just from a point of interest still playing the guitar on the concert scene until the ageof 21 and then I had a long break from the guitar, only playingoccasionally.

When my father died in 2007 it motivated me to start playing the guitaragain. It was then that I also started making Spanish classical guitars. I make My the traditional way following the method of Antonio de Torres & Jose L Romanillos, I fell in love with the Romanillos guitar because of Julian Bream who played a guitar made by him but the rosette of Romanillos I would never forget.

My guitars are now played by the Spanish guitarist Paco Seco & have been performed on in Concerts by Alan Brinley Shaw, Norway’s Christina Sandsengen, Thu Le, Christian Saggese and Italy’s Andrea Dieci, who are all top concert guitarists and have now become good friends of mine. My aim is to improve the guitar each time I make one, and have more concert guitarists perform and enjoy them.